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Tag Archives: Papua New Guinea

How does one describe the utter disappointment after incidents like this? As humanity we have come so far, but what good does it do us if we allow large pockets of the world to succumb to the same fate as so many people of our past? The position many news agencies are taking on the particular case is one that misses a very real aspect, “Papua New Guinea, suffers from a lack of education”. So what exactly did the missionaries do when they visited this place?

Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea

ELCONG set up in the late 1800’s and quickly spread throughout the region. Within the first ten years of their settlement at least 4 missions had been established. Today the Protestant religion has a prominent role in New Guinea. the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea Act 1991, officially incorporated the Lutheran church. Among Protestantism, you will also find Catholicism here. The history of this country stems from tribalism, where headhunting and cannibalism were prominent features of their culture.

Although we don’t see cannibalism in Papua New Guinea today, does that mean the missionaries get off easy? I think not. If the townsfolk had chosen to deport this woman, or even give her a court hearing where they determined to send her away, religion wouldn’t boil to the surface of my thoughts. So where did these people get the idea that you are SUPPOSED to burn witches at the stake? Where in the world does this concept of murdering someone for being something that doesn’t even exist come from? History tells us, that Christianity and other religions are guilty of many witch killings, Vampire staking, demon hunting, you get the picture. So missionaries have been successful in taking a culture from ritualistically eating each other, to religiously burning one another alive?

admittedly, I have only heard of several cases like this from New Guinea. I hope after the backlash they will receive from outside communities this burning people will be ruled out as a viable option to rid the world of things that don’t exist. I simply wanted to draw a similarity between the what, (witch), why (sin), where (religions population), when (today), how (BURNED).

If this were merely based on education, then it wouldn’t have happened in Europe at he hand of Kings and Queens.